more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
The prevailing view in cognitive psychology is that the mind consists of separate faculties, each with a certain cognitive task: linguistic, social, practical, theoretical, abstract, spatial and emotional.
Gist of Idea
Mental modules for language, social, action, theory, space, emotion
Source
Colin McGinn (The Mysterious Flame [1999], p.40)
Book Ref
McGinn,Colin: 'The Mysterious Flame' [Basic Books 1999], p.40
A Reaction
'Faculties' are not quite the same as 'modules', and this list mostly involves more higher-order activities than a modules list (e.g. Idea 2495). The idea that emotion is a 'faculty' sounds old-fashioned.
Related Idea
Idea 2495 Obvious modules are language and commonsense explanation [Fodor]
| 2543 | Brains aren't made of anything special, suggesting panpsychism [McGinn] |
| 2544 | Thoughts have a dual aspect: as they seem to introspection, and their underlying logical reality [McGinn] |
| 2545 | Free will is mental causation in action [McGinn] |
| 2546 | Philosophy is a magnificent failure in its attempt to overstep the limits of our knowledge [McGinn] |
| 2547 | There is information if there are symbols which refer, and which can combine into a truth or falsehood [McGinn] |
| 2539 | Mental modules for language, social, action, theory, space, emotion [McGinn] |
| 2540 | Examining mind sees no brain; examining brain sees no mind [McGinn] |
| 2542 | Causation in the material world is energy-transfer, of motion, electricity or gravity [McGinn] |